Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[amiable]

I do not understand so many parts of this game, for example limiting auction house postings...  What is the purpose of this?

[Nonentity]

I was able to get through a kill quest yesterday, while fighting much competition, by counting the order of the spawn timers in a certain area.

After the Thief in this position spawns, next is the Peon in this position, then the Shaman in this position, etc.

I felt proud of myself, and dead on the inside both at the same time.

[Checkers]

After the Thief in this position spawns, next is the Peon in this position, then the Shaman in this position, etc.

Those quests were especially brutal. 

[Lantyssa]

It's not always a guarantee of more peace, but y'all do know it is possible to switch channels, yes?  Once I got in, things weren't too bad in the evening.  Though maybe everyone was in to the next zone by that point...

[Threash]

It's not always a guarantee of more peace, but y'all do know it is possible to switch channels, yes?  Once I got in, things weren't too bad in the evening.  Though maybe everyone was in to the next zone by that point...

By doing this and ignoring any quest that involves ground spawns i've had no problems. 

[Senses]

I've had no problems because video games aren't hard.

[Venkman]

It's not the game dude, it's the other people.

I've had no problems because I play a Sorcerer.

I haven't had to switch channels yet. I'll be curious to see if that changes tomorrow. I almost suspect not though. Rather, it think that most of the people who wanted this game already have it and therefore could already be banging on it. Not like this is a day one shelf-fly-offer. Has there been ANY marketing at all for this title?

[Chimpy]

Has there been ANY marketing at all for this title?

We have a (almost expired) subscription to a few gaming PC oriented magazines at work. One of them had a double fold out ad right in the middle for this, and I have seen a few smaller ads in a couple of the other magazines. So there was at least that much marketing.

[Venkman]

Ah ok. I'm not the best judge either. Between not watching something unless it's DVR'd and not getting any magazines anymore, I'm sorta marketing immune

[Numtini]

I tend to think that advertising in magazines and such is pretty much wasted money. I judge marketing on how much hype it can generate on the net. I really haven't felt a lot for Aion and I'm quite surprised at the preorders.

[Falconeer]

Most hype for MMOs happen in the last few days before launch. Suddenly the news everyone kept ignoring and put in a corner of the brain as an undefined launch for an undefined MMO breaks loose, a NEW ONE is here and everyone, including the formerly uninterested ones, feel that OH I CAN'T RISK BEING LEFT BEHIND! GRAB!

[amiable]

I gave up and re-rolled on a less populated Pacific time server.   It is like night and day, I can actually find mobs to kill and play in the absence of massive lag...  It took me half the time to level to 10 then on Azphael. they allow character transfers right?   I may just level my character on this server and transfer it somewhere else, assuming I am still interested in playing this game.

[Falconeer]

I'd change the thread title in just Aion, since we clearly don't need a forum for this.

I am level 14, enjoying the slow pace. Game is dull like EVERY other auto-attack based MMORPG in the PvE portion of it. But the world makes up for it, I love the visuals and they keep me entertained while I advance toward the next skill/attack or piece of armour for my dolly. Visuals and audio for chain attacks are cool enough and that helps keeping the combat pleasant. I love when my gladiator jumps up to slam a flaming spear from the sky for the final step of the combo. Superattacks or whatever you want to call the thing you charge up over time, are very cool although too rare.

Swimming upstream to the PvP content.

[Threash]

Hell if the crafting game can get its own forum i don't see why this wouldn't.

[tazelbain]

Hehe.  You should use the MMOG Discussion bourd as your board.  Put "Aion:" in the title.  After a while it show a need for a board.  I think Schild doesn't want to set up boards for every game that comes out just the ones people actually use.  The "one thread per title" rule is for movies and tv That's my completely uninformed opinion.

[Morfiend]

So I did all the quests up to level 12, and still ran in to the problem of underleveling all my quests. I had to grind out half of level 13. Now I am 14, and I have quests that are levels 15-18. I thought this was supposed to be fixed. Not a great sign I am running in to this so early in the game.

[Threash]

So I did all the quests up to level 12, and still ran in to the problem of underleveling all my quests. I had to grind out half of level 13. Now I am 14, and I have quests that are levels 15-18. I thought this was supposed to be fixed. Not a great sign I am running in to this so early in the game.

Thats... odd, i've skipped a lot of quests and haven't ran into that problem.

[Falconeer]

I am with Threash, Morf. I am 14, did all the quests and I am on par with the new batch I just got. Didn't have to kill a single mob without a "purpose" yet. It's really odd.

I wonder what we did differently.
Have you grouped a lot? (I didn't)
Are you Elyos? (I am Asmodian)

[Arinon]

I've run up to 16 a few times and always find the same few dry spells that pretty much call for some grinding.   Annoying.

[Mrbloodworth]

WAR had about 600k pre-orders IIRC. It was the best selling item across all categories on Amazon.de the day it went on sale.

Link?

Don't question him nave!

[Morfiend]

So I did all the quests up to level 12, and still ran in to the problem of underleveling all my quests. I had to grind out half of level 13. Now I am 14, and I have quests that are levels 15-18. I thought this was supposed to be fixed. Not a great sign I am running in to this so early in the game.

Thats... odd, i've skipped a lot of quests and haven't ran into that problem.

I am Azmo. I grouped a little bit. I actually did a fair amount of grouping last night from 12 to 13.5. I was grouped with a player 2 levels higher than me. I wonder if that just killed my EXP or something.

[Falconeer]

It probably gets you higher sooner, but in terms of perception by completing quests more easily you probably run out of them first. Since questing is only grind in disguise it doesn't change anything but the perception of it. An empty quest book because you completed all the quests in 2 hours is worse than a full log of tasks that take up to 30 minutes each to complete. I guess.

I wager your total /played is less than mine even though we are same level and same faction.

[Venkman]

WAR had about 600k pre-orders IIRC. It was the best selling item across all categories on Amazon.de the day it went on sale.

Link?

Don't question him nave!

Knave.

But in any case, I too would like a link. Honestly it's just because I'm curious. I only remember WAR shipping 1.5mm units to retail as the first big number they reported, nothing about the number of pre-orders. I also saw 100k signups for a Beta or Preview weekend. Nothing about record-breaking pre-order numbers though.

[Falconeer]

Sweet article about the Abyss. There are 9 fortressess that can be sieged periodically at fixed times.

More about artifacts. There are 31 artifacts open for conquest PvP RvR 24/7.

In two links, why I am playing Aion.

[ajax34i]

In two links, why I am playing Aion.

Ugh, that's gonna start a trend.

[Falconeer]

This is pretty cool, some data server by server.


Plus a word on queues:

Server Queues and Course of Action
09-23-09 00:00:26views 48
At NCsoft our commitment is to making the MMO player experience the best it can be. And while Aion has seen a very successful launch that has exceeded our expectations in many ways, we are aware of the longer than usual queue times that players have experienced on some of the servers. This is due to the initial rush of players that we’ve seen in the early days of the game’s launch in Europe and North America.
 
Since the opening of Head Start this past weekend, we’ve have been heavily focused on striking the delicate balance between managing busy servers with queue times versus overcompensating by adding new servers too quickly that are then underpopulated and don’t deliver a fun experience for players. We did indeed see an initial rush on the first days of Head Start which resulted in longer than desired queue times for some of our servers, and we are working around the clock to alleviate this. In fact, we are happy to confirm we have increased our server caps and are adding an additional server in both North America and Europe by this weekend, and we will continue to evaluate adding additional servers.
 
That said, we do have alternate servers where players are experiencing lower queue times. People can get a real-time update and select that choice on our website at: http://uk.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/
 
We continue to monitor issues closely and strive to address player feedback quickly to ensure the best possible experience.

[Threash]

Bleh accidentally tripped over my internet cord, 3 hour queue.

[Ashamanchill]

I finally got the box and finished all my other commitments tonight. Logged on and I'm in an hour and a half queue. Yay?

[Draegan]

I love my ranger at 25.  Sexy.

[Threash]

Damn, you move fast.

[Ashamanchill]

Is there any way to tell what your attributes do? I mean, I have 275 block or something like that, but I have no idea what that means. My Ui doens't translate that into a percentage of block, or dodge et al.

[Falconeer]

I am still wondering about accuracy. It's kinda self explanatory, but since I never missed in 15 levels I wonder why should I put points in it.

[March]

I finally got the box and finished all my other commitments tonight. Logged on and I'm in an hour and a half queue. Yay?

They should wise up and clone some servers... 

Seriously though, regular edition launch... 1.5 hr queue?  Perhaps they want to keep the lid on it and figure that high demand/frustration looks better than empty servers... but sheesh, 15 min queues would do the trick there.

Something needs to be done... the real strategy cannot possibly be that they are waiting for people to fold so that the server queues go down?  Self-fulfilling prophecy? 

Somewhere between the giddy, "hey we're gonna kill WoW lets get 64 servers stat!" and "let them eat cake!" should be some sort of solution.

[Falconeer]

Right now, all servers down. No notice that I can find, and forums are kinda dead too around here. No ETA, no news, no announcements, nothing.

It. Sucks.

[Xanthippe]

Played yesterday on the server starting with K (Xanthippe/Asmo).  Had no problems at all, although I did notice a clustering of everyone in channel 1, so when I ran into spawn problems, I switched to 2, then 3, then 4 and so on until I killed however many scratchers and stalkers I needed to.

Smoothest first day on an MMO ever - didn't have any queue problems, only one weird thing happened (my toon started to spin, I logged out, in, quit, restarted, to no avail, but typing on General Chat fixed it).

Server is populated without being overpopulated, it seems.